Cycoms Acquires Cyworld Business Rights... "Revival as a New Community Next Year"

Psycommunications (hereinafter Psycomms) announced on the 12th that it has completed the acquisition of the Cyworld business rights and assets from the existing Cyworld owning corporation.

Cyworld is a social networking service (SNS) that boasted the highest popularity in South Korea in the mid to late 2000s, with 32 million users. It pioneered the concept of creating a personalized mini homepage where users could post writings or photos and communicate by forming 'Ilchon' (close friends) with their acquaintances, and it was the first in Korea to introduce a virtual currency called 'Dotori' (acorns).

Cyworld teasing image. Provided by Cycomz

Psycomms was established in early September as a special purpose company for the Cyworld business acquisition. With the completion of the Cyworld acquisition, Psycomms plans to develop a new community service utilizing the brand assets. All user personal data held by the previous corporation has been securely transferred to Psycomms.

Regarding the Cyworld acquisition, Psycomms explained, "The appeal of the brand assets owned by Cyworld and the increasing fatigue toward existing SNS services in recent years, creating a market gap for services with new directions, were decisive factors."

Psycomms is conceptualizing a sophisticated revival of Cyworld’s original motto, 'Sa-i-jo-eun Saramdeul' (Good People). The plan is to provide a personalized space for users tired of excessive privacy exposure and information sharing on existing SNS platforms, and to create a service that allows easy interaction within small groups. The beta version of the service is scheduled to be unveiled in the first half of 2025, with the official launch targeted for next year.

At 2 PM on the same day, a teaser site announcing the new beginning of Cyworld was launched on the Cyworld homepage. Starting from the 25th, various activities such as user voting on the Cyworld logo and Minime will be conducted. The existing app service will be terminated as of December 2.

The personnel composition is also noteworthy. CEO Ham Young-cheol of Psycomms is currently the CEO of TwoByte and was responsible for planning Daum News and Agora during Daum’s heyday. He played a decisive role in Nexon’s social game planning, served as head of publishing at Daum Games, and oversaw the global business of 'Black Desert' at Pearl Abyss, contributing to the company’s listing on KOSDAQ with a market cap of 2 trillion KRW.

Additionally, Chief Product Officer (CPO) Park Yoo-jin, who performed business development and practical PM roles at Daum and Kakao Games; Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Ryu Ji-cheol, who led the development of major services such as Daum’s large-capacity mail, tvPot, and Planet; and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Jung Kyu-hyun, who handled marketing at Nike and Cheil Worldwide, have joined the team. Further leaders and operational staff necessary for service development will also be secured.

CEO Ham stated, "We will present services that current users want based on the existing Cyworld, and plan to announce a detailed roadmap in December."